| Product: |
Capital punishment |
| Date: |
12.07.06 (161 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: None
Disadvantages: It degrades society
Britain's most well-known hangman Albert Pierrepoint, who hanged over 300 men and women during his career, said after his retirement, that he didn't believe his actions as a deterrent had prevented a single murder.
What he was saying was that people don't set out to commit crime thinking "hang on (no pun intended) what happens if I get caught". The career criminal thinks he's too clever to be apprehended, some are too stupid to care, and many crimes are unplanned, so the question of consequence doesn't enter the equation.
The threat of capital punishment apparently didn't stop any convicted and subsequently executed person from carrying out their particular crime, so immediately there's a flaw in it's use.
The only remaining justification for the use of capital punishment can be retribution, "an eye for an eye" which many people support. I'm uncomfortable with this as a member of a "civilised society". Murder is a complex crime, two murders are rarely the same, and can therefore never be treated the same. Once they enter the public arena via the media the problems really start, with the public baying for the blood of one individual whilst having collective sympathy with another, e.g. "he was protecting his property". I have no faith in the Mob, and less in politicians who will jump on band-wagons to be popular with the electorate. There are too many hidden agendas at work, and to collectively put a person to death in this way is morally wrong.
The debate surrounding executions in the U.S.A. should be reason enough to never again contemplate the use of the death penalty anywhere. The whole barbaric, sensationalist, grisly circus is a blight on american society. It's use in China (kept a closely guarded secret but believed to be in excess of 3000 executions last year) used to provide organs for transplant surgery.
I was a kid when the last hangings took place in Britain (13th August 1964), and I still remember the reports in the papers and T.V. Even as a 13 year old I felt sick to my stomach, and I've been opposed to capital punishment ever since.
Summary: Capital Punishment hasn't prevented a single murder and doesn't work
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